Counting device



J. ROUSSO Aug. 7, 1923.

COUNTING DEVICE 2s Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 13, 1919 Km/2w Patented Aug. 7, 1923.

v UNITED STATES JACQUES ROl'J'SSO, 0F LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

'COUNTING DEVICE.

Application filed January 13, 1919. Serial No. 270,876.

"To all whom it may concern:

"Be it known-that I, JACQUES Rousso, a

citizen of the United States, and a resident of the )city of Los Angeles, county of Los 'Angeles, and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in CountingDevices, of which the following is a specification. I I

My invention relates to improvements in counting devices, especially adapted for counting perforatedarticles, such as grometed towels, and has for its object the provision of an improved construction of this character which is efiicient and reliable in use and capable of economical manufacture.

Other objects willappear hereinafter.

r a The invention consists in the combinations andarra'ngements of parts hereinafter de-- scribed and claimed.

I 7 reference to the accompanying drawings The invention will be best understood b forming a part of this'specification, and in which,

' Fig. 2,

Fig.4, a partial horizontal section of the 7 same,

Fig. 5, a horizontal section of the same taken on a lower plane than Fig. 4:,

Fig. ,6, a section taken on line 6-6 of Fig. 3, 1 I

Fig. '7, a section taken on line oa-w of Fig 3, and looking in the direction of the arrows 7'-7, and t i Fig.8, a section taken on line m-m oi Fig. 3 and looking in the direction of the arrows 8-8.

The preferred form of construction, as illustrated in the drawings, comprises a suitable supporting plate or table 9 adapted to be secured in the top of an ordinary work table or the like, and carrying a depending casing or houslng 10 on its under side adapt- 1 ed to inclose the registering mechanism employed in the device.

A removable hollow upstanding guide post 11 is arranged to project upwardly from the table 9 and is equipped with a depressible spring-held actuating plunger 12 connected by a link-13' with a downwardly yieldable counting finger 1 1 pivoted at 1;)

; in the postll and projecting laterally there ,from through a slot 16, as shown. Aguide spring 17 also yieldingly projects from a slot 18 in the side of said post, opposite the counting finger 14. The arrangement is such that when a perforated article, such as a gromet'19 in a towel 20 is passed downwill be swung inwardly and downwardly to depress the plunger 12, the guide spring 17 serving to adapt the device for operation PATENT OFFICE.

vwardly over the guide post 11 the finger 1 1 i with gromets having openings therein of 1 various sizes. The arrangement providing for operation by gromets of varying sizes constitutes no part of my invention, the same being the invention of Sam Wolf, who has made application for patent on sameand assigned the same to me, said application having been filed on January 18, 1919, Serial No. 271,806. b

The lower end of post 11 removably fits within a socket 21 and is beveled at 22 to engage a spring-held locking and setting lever 23, as shown. On its side opposite the beveled portion 22, the post 11 is provided with a notch 24 adapted to receive the lever 23 when said post is properly turned or rostated in the socket 21,v and a tension spring 25 normally holds the lever 23 in operative position. The arrangement is such that when the post 11 is inserted in socket 21, the

beveled portion 22 may be brought into coni tact with the lever 23, forcing the same outwardly and laterally until the post 11 reaches the bottom of socket 21, whereupon, by turning the post 11, the notch 24: will be brought into position to receivejthe lever 23, permitting the return of said lever to original position and locking the post in the socket 21 against removal until turnedback to the position of insertion. As will be observed in Fig. 5, groove 24- only extends part way around the post 11, so that when said post is turned back to position of insertion, the lever 23 will be forced outwardly and laterally by the cam action of the bottom of said groove.

a The lever 23 is arranged to engage, upon outward swinging thereof as above described, with an upstanding post 26 carried by bell crank lever 27 pivoted at 28 in casing 10, said bell crank being provided with an arm thus preventing depression otp-lunger l2 and the passage of a towel onto post 11.

The pawl arm 30 is set under the plunger 12 in post 11, as shown, and so arranged that depression of the plunger causes downward swinging of the pawl arm. The pawl arm 30 carries a pivoted pawl arm 32 yieldingly held by a tension spring 32 in operative contact with the periphery of a ratchet wheel 33, as shown, said ratchet wheel 33 being provided with a suitable number of ratchet teeth, in the present instance with fifty of such teeth. A dog 34 in the form of a bell crank lever is pivotally mounted at 34 within the casing 10 and is provided with a dog arm 35 riding upon the periphery of a hub or lateral projection 36 on the side of ratchet wheel The locking arm 35 on the dog 34 is normally held by a tension spring 37 in engagement with a notch 38 in the hub 36, as shown in Fig. 3. A trigger arm 39 is pivotally mounted in casing 10 and provided with a stop shoulder 40 adapted to engage a lug or ear 41 on the side of dog 34, said shoulder being normally held in such engagement by means of a tension spring 39 connected with the other end of the trigger arm 39 the parts being shown in Fig. 3, however, with trigger arm 39 out of engagement with lug 41. Trigger arm 39 is provided with a projecting releasing linger 42 set in the path of a crank pin 43 on the hub 36, as shown, the arrangement being such that at a certain time in the revolution of ratchet wheel 33 the crank pin 43 engages the under side of finger 42, lifts the shoulder 40 from engagement with the lug 41 and thus releases the dog 34, so that the locking arm may ride upon the periphery of hub 36 and enter notch 38, when said notch, is brought into registration therewith. The lower end of the dog 34 is operatively connected with the locking lever 27, so that when the locking arm thus enters the notch 38, stop arm 29 is swung to position under the pawl arm 30, thus preventing further operation of said pawl arm or of said counting finger 14. Likewise. when the lever 23 is operated by the insertion. turning and removal of post 11, as above described, the post 26 is engaged by said lever 23 upon. outward swinging thereof, which forces the locking lever 27 I outwardly, removing the stop arm 29 from under the pawl arm 30, swings the lower end of dog 34 toward the ratchet wheel to permit the trigger arm shoulder 40 to fall behind the lug 41 to lock the dog 34 in inactive position and set the parts for operation.

A rocking lever arm 44 is also arranged within the path of the crank pin 43 on the ratchet 33, being held. in contact with said crank pin by the tension spring 45 and whereby, upon rotation of the ratchet wheel 33, the lever arm 44 will be caused to rock, as will be readily understood. The lever arm 44 is pivoted on and operatively connected as indicated with the operating shaft of an ordinary registering mechanism 46 positioned in an opening in the table 9, so as to be visible from above said table, said rocker arm 44 operating in the usual manner to operate the registering mechanism 46 once upon each complete oscillation to and fro thereof, as will be readily understood. A stop roller 47 is rotatably mounted on the end of a spring 48 to ride upon the periphery of ratchet wheel 33 to prevent reverse or accidental movements of said ratchet wheel. In use, the guide post 11 is inserted in the socket 21 with the beveled portion 22 in position to Contact with the lever 23 and swing the same outwardly to permit of the complete insertion of the post 11. Thereupon, the post 11 is rotated in either direction through an angle of one hundred eighty degrees, thus bringing the slot 24 into engagement with the lever 23, which prevents the removal of said post while in such position. Thereupon the towels are counted by forcing the same downwardly and singly over post 11, each towel thus causing the depression of plunger 12. Each depression of plunger 12 causes a corresponding depression of pawl arm 30 and a corresponding rotation of ratchet wheel 33 through an angle corresponding with one of the teeth thereon. In initial position, the crank pin 43 and lever arm 44 are in the positions indicated in Fig. 3, so that continued operation of the ratchet wheel 33 by the forcing of other towels downwardly over the guide post 11, causes a movement of lever 44 to the left of the position indicated in Fig. 3. During this movement of the lever arm 44, the register 46 is operated to register the bundle of towels then being counted, the reverse motion of lever 44 serving merely to reset the same and the mechanism in register 46 to cause another operation of said register upon the next operation of wheel 33, as will be readily understood. As the counting of the towels continues, the rotation of ratchet wheel 33 continues until crank pin 43 engages under the end of finger 42. raising the shoulder 40 from engagement with the lug 41 and thus releasing the dog 34 so that the arm; 35 rides upon the periphery of hub 36, which will prevent operation or" the dog 34 but releases the same for such operation. Then when notch 33 arrives in registration with the dog arm 35, the same passes into said notch, thus actuating the dog 34 and operating the stop arm 29, as above described, to prevent further operations of pawl arm 30 and consequently of the device. The parts are so arranged and timed that the notch 38 arrives into registration with the dog arm 35 after the accomplishing of one complete revolution of ratchet wheel 33 from the starting point, which complete revolution can be caused only by the arrangement of fifty towels upon the counting table, whereupon the mechanism is locked against further operation, thus notifying the operator that the bundle is complete. Obviously, by changing the number of teeth in the ratchet 33 and the other parts to correspond, the device may be arranged to count the towels in a bundle of any desired size.

However, in order to remove the bundle of towels thus counted and registered, it is necessary to first remove the post 11, as the counting finger 14 will not permit of reverse movements or" the towels thereon, and in order to remove the post 11 it is first neces sary to rotate the same to the position of insertion, to release the lever 23 from the groove 24. However, this rotation of the post 11 also serves to throw the lever 23 outwardly into operative contact with post 26,

I thus resetting the mechanism for the next counting operation as above described. The

, post 11 is then removed, which permits of the removal of the bundle of fifty towels,

and the device is then ready for another operation, as explained.

By this arrangement, perforated articles,

such as grometed towels, may be readily, quickly and accurately counted into bundles of the same size and a register kept of the number of bundles thus formed, which also, of course, constitutes a register of the number of individualtowels. The device disclosed is a simple and efiicient one for the purpose, and capable of economical manufacture.

\Vhile I have illustrated and described the preferred form of construction for carrying my invention into eflect, this is capable,

of variation and modification without departing from the spirit of the invention. I,

of further articles,

therefore,do not wish to be limited to the precise details of construction set forth, but desire to avail myself of such variations and modifications as come within the scope of the appended claims.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is p 1. A cOllIlting device comprising a guide; counting means on said guide operable by the passage of articles thereon; a register operable by said counting means; and

means, operable by said register, for looking said counting means against operation after a predetermined number of operations thereof in position to prevent the passage substantially as described.

2. A counting device comprising a removable guide post; counting means on said guide post; a register; means operable by said counting means for operatlng said register; and means operable by turning said post for rendering said registering mean operable and inoperable, described.

3. A counting device comprising a removable rotatable post; counting means on said post; a register; a depresslble spring-held pawl in operative relation with said countmg means, operable thereby and carrying a pawl in operative relation with said registering mechanism; and means. operable by turning said post for rendering said registerin means operable and inoperable, substantlally as described.

4. A device of the class described comprising a register; a ratchet wheel; an operative connection between said ratchet substantially as wheel and said register; means for intermittently operating said ratchet wheel; a

6. A counting device comprising a remov able rotatable hollow guide post; a depressible spring held plunger in said guide post; a counting finger pivoted on said guide post and projecting laterally from'one side thereof; 'an operative connection between said counting finger and said plunger;-a register; a depressible spring held pawl arm in operative relation with said plunger and carrying a pawl in operative relation with said registering mechanism; and means operable by turning said post for rendering said registering mechanism operable and inoperable, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

- JACQUES ROUSSO. 

